Laird sends £107m mobiles message

LAIRD completed a three-year restructuring today by selling its North American plastics business and splashing out on one of the biggest makers of mobile phone antennae in the world.

It is buying Centurion Wireless Technologies in a cash and shares deal worth £106.8m. Some £36m will come from the sale of Laird Plastics to US rival Blackfriars Corporation.

Chief executive Peter Hill flagged the sale of the plastics business last month and said today's two deals brought an end to his repositioning into growth markets.

'The plastics business has done very well and is the second-largest plastics distributor in North America but, at this stage, we feel we can get better value for our shareholders elsewhere,' he said.

'The antennae market is starting to take off. People are talking about growth of 8% to 10% a year for mobile phone handsets and 10% for notebooks and laptops.'

Laird already supplies the likes of Nokia and Motorola with electromagnetic shielding technology. It shares were unchanged today at 305p.